The present invention relates to a library apparatus for housing large-capacity recording mediums and executing recording/reproducing processes on and from each recording medium in accordance with a command issued from a host computer.
With a development in technology of processing information over recent years, there have been demands for a much larger capacity of a recordable data quantity, saving a labor for recording and reproducing the data, and automation of recording and reproducing the data. There is increased a need for a library apparatus for executing recording/reproducing processes on and from the recording medium as one of apparatuses responding to those demands, and a construction of the apparatus is becoming large in scale.
The library apparatus is roughly constructed in the manner which follows. To be specific, a plurality of box-shaped units are connected on both sides along one travelling path (a rail). A carrying device (referred to as an "accessor") for carrying a magnetic tape defined as a recording medium is installed on the traveling path. The plurality of units include a unit (a housing unit) for housing the magnetic tape, a unit (a recording/reproducing unit) for housing a recording/reproducing device of the magnetic tape, and a unit (a control unit) for housing a controller of the accessor. Then, the controller is connected to a host computer for issuing a variety of commands to the library apparatus.
A rocker constructed of a plurality of cells is formed on a surface, facing to the traveling path, of the housing unit, and the magnetic tape is housed in each cell. Further, a slot is formed in a surface, facing to the traveling path, of the recording/reproducing unit. When the magnetic tape is inserted into the slot, the magnetic tape is loaded into the recording/reproducing device, and data is recorded on or reproduced from the magnetic tape. The accessor fetches the magnetic tape from an appropriate cell of the housing unit in accordance with a drive command generated by the controller, and performs an operation of carrying the magnetic tape to other cell and the recording/reproducing unit, or an operation of carrying again to an appropriate cell the magnetic tape on and from which the recording/reproducing processes have been done.
It is required that the magnetic tape be properly carried by the accessor between the units in accordance with the command from the controller in order for the library apparatus to be properly operated based on the command issued from the host computer. For attaining this, the controller of the accessor must hold the data about a total number of the units, kinds of the respective units, positions where the units are disposed, the number of cells housed in the housing units, and positions of the cells, and must generate commands based on these pieces of data.
The library apparatus is, however, capable of arbitrarily setting a recording medium activity quantity (a housing quantity) and a recording/reproducing processing capability by connecting a corresponding number of housing units to a scale of a computer system using the library apparatus and an appropriate number of recording/reproducing units. Hence, there is no fixed type of unit construction in the library apparatus. Accordingly, it is impossible to adopt a method by which the controller previously holds the data about the total number of units, the kinds of units, the disposing positions of the units pursuant to the fixed type of unit construction, the number of cells housed in the housing units and the positions of the cells, and generates the drive command of the accessor on the basis of these pieces of data.
From the reason elucidated above, according to the prior art, on the occasion of installing the library apparatus, the units connected are disposed on both sides of the travelling path, and thereafter a manager of the library apparatus carries out, e.g., an operation which follows. Specifically, the manager inputs the data about the total number of units, the kinds of units, the disposing positions of units, the number of cells housed in the housing units and the positions of cells, to a portable data storage device known as an operation panel with reference to a manual (specifications) of the library apparatus. Subsequently, the manager visually observes each housing unit or each recording/reproducing unit, and thus confirms whether the data inputted to the operation panel are correct or not. Then, the manager stores the data recorded on the operation panel in a nonvolatile memory mounted in the controller of the accessor. After such an operation, the controller of the accessor executes control of the operation of the accessor by use of the data stored in the nonvolatile memory, thereby operating the library apparatus.
The above-described operation by the manager is, however, remarkably troublesome and time-consuming as well, and depends on a manual operation. It is therefore quite difficult to request a perfect accuracy. On the other hand, an input mistake of the data recorded on the operation panel might exert a direct influence upon a performance and safety of the library apparatus. Hence, it is almost impossible to precisely input the data in a short time. Accordingly, there arises a problem in which a comparatively long time is needed for installing the library apparatus.